Mutual Aid Means We Will Save Us
I have some good news for you! SOME REALLY GOOD NEWS! In an era when bad news is all the rage, I encourage you to soak up this truly, good news up. Slip into it like a hot tub on your first night on vacation; you know you have to go home eventually, but you ain’t thinking about it now.
As I have written about here before, one of the stories that made me want to go to Minneapolis after the extrajudicial killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti came from Modern Times Cafe owner, Dylan Alverson. In a video, Dylan sat at his desk, looking seriously annoyed. He begrudgingly looked at the camera and said a very simple thing:.
“My name is Dylan from Modern Times Cafe in Minneapolis. Starting today, January 26th and until the occupation of Minneapolis is over, we are a free restaurant, Post Modern Times.”
BOOM GOES THE ANTI-CAPITALIST DYNAMITE!
When I made it to Minneapolis only a few days later, I was so happy that Dylan agreed to meet with me. Dylan told me that making his restaurant free had gone so well that he was working on making it free even after the occupation (hopefully) ends. He had even officially renamed his restaurant Post Modern Times Cafe. If all went according to his (and his accountant’s) plan, the restaurant would turn into a nonprofit. Dyan wanted his restaurant to be pay-what-you-can or (more accurately) pay-what-you-want. That way one person could eat pancakes for free, and the next person could say, “THESE $20 WORTH OF PANCAKES ARE SO DELICIOUS THAT I’M PAYING $200!”
If you think about it, isn’t this how capitalism should work? Elon Musk should definitely be paying way more for eggs than a family of five living in a two bedroom apartment.
Over the weekend, my family friend Emily Goldthwaite, who also lives in Minneapolis, sent me an article from The Minnesota Star Tribune. Pay-what-you-wanna is now PERMANENT at Post Modern Times Cafe.
Let us slay.
The article also mentions how my little trip to the Twin Cities has helped the greater cause. When I interviewed Dylan, he insisted that I talk to his friend Ammar Aref, a Palestinian immigrant, across the street. Ammar and his family own Amigos One Stop, a convenience store (or tienda) that primarily serves the Latino community. In the wake of the illegal federal occupation, Ammar noticed that many of his customers were no longer coming to the store, for fear of being kidnapped by I.C.E. In response, Ammar and his family began delivering groceries to his customers for free. No delivery fees charged, and sometimes no charge for the groceries either. Ammar is not rich. He and his family were committed to doing this even though it affects their bottom line. Once word of his efforts got out, people began to donate. Apparently, the videos I made helped too. In the article, Ammar says that after they were posted, “people started calling and sending donations from everywhere”. And I KNOW that some of those donations came from you! Thank you for doing that. The good news is that we are the good news. We can be the good news.
The work that Post Modern Times Cafe and Amigos One Stop are doing is under the broad umbrella of mutual aid. The Cornell Law School defines mutual aid, in part, as “a voluntary exchange of services and resources between members of society for mutual benefit.” Even though they used the word they were defining in the definition of the thing they were defining, that seems like a pretty good definition to me. Global Giving says:
That’s a better one, but kind of a mouthful.
When I was in the Twin Cities, I asked Ashley Fairbanks how she would define it. Ashley is an expert in mutual aid. She even built a website to help the people meet the needs of Minnesotans after Kristi Noem released her federal goblins in the area. What Ashley does for a living is complicated. We had a good laugh about how we both have a lot of slashes in our job descriptions. Ashley introduced herself as “a creative director, an author, a designer, etc.” That “etc” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. She also lists storyteller, narrative consultant, and artist. Luckily for Minnesotans “website designer” is in there too. Her site is called StandWithMinnesota.com. It includes a variety of ways to support the people who are the most heavily impacted by our rogue government. You can donate cash to help someone pay their rent because their breadwinner has been kidnapped by I.C.E. You can donate frequent flyer miles so that someone who was kidnapped by I.C.E., taken to Texas, and then released in the streets of Texas can get back home. You can just volunteer your time. You can also just learn about everything going on in Minnesota so you can be better able to talk about it.
We sat down at The McKnight Foundation to talk. McKnight, who partenred with me on this series, introduced me to Ashley. When I asked Ashley for her definition of mutual aid there were no frills.
Ashley: “Just helping each other.”
Although we didn’t talk about it specifically, I’m guessing that Ashley’s beliefs about mutual aid are connected to the fact that not only was Ashley born in Minnesota, she is native to the land that Minnesota exists on. Ashley is Anishinaabe. Her Indigenous name is Aasiniiwiikwe Indizhinikaaz.
When I think of all the things that I have learned from Indigenous folks there are two things that stick out.
1) The United States of America has broken every treaty we have ever made with Indigenous people.
2) Indigenous people didn’t even have the concept of homelessness until colonizers came in and fucked everything up.
It makes perfect sense that an Indigenous person would be a part of reintroducing the idea of mutual aid to the rest of us. Indigenous folks looked out for everyone in their community, until capitalism ruined everything. This is also true of tribes in Africa and other Indigenous folks around the world. Today, Indigenous people have the second highest rate of homelessness, despite only being around 2% of the U.S. population.
Ashley has combined caring for her Minnesota community with an easy to use and simple to navigate website. And let’s be clear. No matter what you have read in the news, there are still hundreds of federal troops on the ground in Minnesota. They may have “fired” Kristi Noem, but her damage is done (and still being done). Even after the last of the federales are gone, many people will still be afraid to leave their homes and afraid to go to work. They might not even have a workplace to return to. Mutual aid is not a band-aid. Mutual aid is the future, or for many of us, a return to the past. Mutual aid is the realization that we cannot trust our government to do its job. That’s not meant to be just an indictment of Trump. In our nearly 250 years, America has never had a proper social safety net. A Democratic president won’t be the solution. We are the solution. There is something we can all do to create more community. We can embrace mutual aid. While I heartily encourage you to Google the phrase “mutual aid” and the name of your city, I also encourage you to think the way Ashley encourages us to think:.
“[Mutual aid] is like the neighborly behaviors. Making your neighbor, who you know is out doing I.C.E. watch, a pot of soup. Whatever the need is, just meeting it without having an expectation of an exchange of money for services.”
WHO’S WITH ASHLEY? WHO’S WITH US?
Once again, I’m gonna open up the comments. Be productive and constructive. Put your mutual aid ideas in the comments.
Ashley Fairbanks Is Also A Children’s Book Author
Both books focus on children hearing the Indigenous story from an Indigenous voice. Buy them at the buttons below.
Mutual Aid with Stand With Minnesota!
You know what to do! We are the good news!
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